The People Who Inspired My Style; From My Mother To Madonna...Part 1

 In my last post I looked at the difference between fashion and style and concluded that while fashion is  trend-led and temporary,  style on the other hand  is often, but not always, classic and  timeless.  While fashion is a collective experience, style is personal and unique to the individual. Your style is often nurtured and cultivated over the years . It is how you express yourself through your clothes, your hair, your accessories, your perfume even. Ultimately, t is how you put eveyrhing together to form your own 'personal style' 

With this in mind, I decided to explore my own style so far -looking at who my influences have been. Every child clearly starts off being dressed by their mother or father or whoever their parental figure might be. Our first fashion influence is therefore undoubtedly, whether they are someone with great style or no style whatsoever,  our parents. Whether they chose to dress us in hand me downs from older siblings, or party dresses every day of the week, like it or not, our formative foray into fashion is usually from them - in my case, my mother. As an elder lady, my mother is never out of trousers, however up until her 70s, I never saw one pair of trousers in her wardrobe. There was an incredible pair of 60s pink flared pyjamas made of the softest jersey cotton and with gold on white applique embroidery  all down the front of the top. It was very much influenced by the Beatles in their Rishikesh period. but I never saw her wear them. 

Have fun, look good, beauty is pain.

My mother was skirt and skyscraper heels, all through the 50s through to the 80s and early 90s. The heels slowly lowered over the ages, but in my early years, I was enthralled by the 4 inch sandals she would teeter in. Stilettos with no ankle straps were a common part of her 80s arsenal. She even wore a pair when we went for a picnic in the Troodos mountains of Cyprus in 50 degrees heat across terrain so rocky they had donkeys to help you navigate it. Today I wouldn't chance that terrain in anything without a flat rubber sole that safely adhered my feet to the ground. What my mothers 'high heels at all costs, even in the mountains' escapades taught  me though, was 1) that fashion can be fun 2) fashion can be dangerous 3 )beauty is pain .4) fashion can potentially kill you, or at least, break a leg. This 'looking good at all costs' attitude started a lifelong addiction to impractical shoe choices. Mostly of the high heel variety, however,  I' have also  been hiking in flip flops. But hey, at least I had fun and looked good, which is my main take away from what my mother taught me about fashion and my own style. The rest here, are the people whose style most influenced mine. 

1) Kate Moss

Kate Moss in Minnetonka boots and shorts

Kate Moss’ status as a style icon is part of fashion history. She inspires everyone, from designers like John Galliano, Marc Jacobs and Vivienne Westwood to Hollywood stylists and buyers at retail chain stores.

Remember that Great Gatsby inspired, blue-sequinned 1930s vintage dress she wore for her 30th birthday? A month later, Tom Ford sent his models out in identical gowns as part of Gucci’s fall collection. After having a baby in 2002, Kate slipped on cute ballet flats, the Pirouette by French Sole. Suddenly, ballet flats were everywhere, flying off the shelves of H&M and Topshop.

So how did Kate get that unique take on style? As a cash-strapped teen, she hunted down secondhand clothing in London’s Portobello Market. Unlike the chic, carefully coordinated merchandise on display in fashion stores, the stalls jumbled different types of clothes together. The unusual combinations inspired her to mix things up — mens’ suits with Adidas trainers, high-heeled suede boots with antique silk nightgowns (which later triggered the underwear-as-outerwear trend). A certain amount of it also has to be down to her own innate sense of style and what looks good. Some people just have 'it'.

As she once said: “I don’t follow a trend. I just have a thrown-together look people can relate too, not too ‘done.’ ”

Kate can start trends overnight. Just when everyone began copying those ballet flats, she started wearing gladiator sandals. When everyone was firmly entrenched in their boot-cut jeans and flares, Kate was photographed in skinny drainpipes, and soon enough, they were everywhere. The same can be said for so many trends of the noughties - the vest worn with jeans or shorts, on it's own or over a shirt. The Minnetonka boot, the Ugg boot, low slung belts, shaggy coats, leopard print, the simple black blazer worn over everything. Her contribution to what was considered fashionable from the 90s to late 10s was astronomical. She had the golden touch - if she wore your product, it was guaranteed to sell out.  

Inevitably, Kate wanted a piece of the action for herself. She chose British retail store Topshop to launch a collaboration in 2007. Fashionistas were thrilled - here you could actually buy  copies of pieces from Kate's actual wardrobe, or items designed by her own fashion-genius mind. And the great thing was that they were affordable, so everyone could buy a piece of that Moss magic. Sure enough, first-year sales were a smash hit, reaching $5.7 million in the first week alone.

Kate Moss styles ballet flats four ways

At 40, Kate claims her sense of style is mellowing — “You can’t [walk] a dog in a heel,” she’s said. Although Kate has taken a step back from the limelight these days when it comes to fashion influence allowing new blood to come through (the Kardashians? the Hadids?) no-one has yet to have quite the effect on fashion that she had. Whether you were into fashion or not, if you were a woman in her youth in the last 30 years, it's guaranteed that Kate Moss inspired something you loved in your wardrobe. And that is  quite a feat.

2) Jim Morrison,  Pamela Courson and 'Themis'.

Jim Morrsion rocks all leather with a white shirt and silver belt

The Lizard King had a style that embodied Los Angeles cool in the 1960s. Jim Morrison was one of the most important figures in the Swinging Sixties. But the snake-hipped Doors' lead singer didn’t just shake things up through his music, he also embraced bohemian fashion which was copied the world over. From his famed leather trousers and billowing white shirts to his mop of rock star curls Jim's look is as famed as Marilyn Monroe in her white halter neck standing over a subway grate, or James Dean in his blue jeans, white t-shirt and red jacket from the movie Giant. 

The hippie movement felt a huge appreciation for the Romantic artistic and social movement and Jim Morrison was no different. Morrison has been called a 'post romantic' by academics, not just for his style and life attitudes, but his poetry. 

His style, although simplistic, is easily recognisable. Fur coats, used as statement pieces were a common embellishment. 

He was also passionate about Native American culture, At the age of four, he witnessed a car crash in which a group of Native Americans were injured in the desert. The event made a deep impression on him (“he always thought about that crying Indian”, his father later said) and was later referenced, along with Native American culture, in many of his style choices, poems and songs. He often adopted its accessories and garments in the form of vests, belts, necklaces and head-dresses which although contentious today, were almost certainly worn in appreciation in his day. 

As already mentioned, the famed leather trousers and shirt look was perhaps his most famous fashion statement and he wore his leather trousers with everything. Denim shirts, linen, long sleeved Henley t-shirts and bare chested. His leather trousers, and many of his clothes were designed by Mirandi Babitz, a friend of his girlfriend, Pamela Courson, who had a boutique on the Sunset Strip with her husband. In fact, Morrison wore so many of her clothes he was considered a walking advert for the shop.. 

Jim's look for me was more inspiration than 'I want those pink striped trousers and pixie boots'. The way he carried himself and styled his outfits was the epitome of laid back LA cool. They key to capturing Jim Morrison's style essence is in his attitude. He wasn't just a mannequin carrying clothes, and in fact greatly rebelled against his heartthrob image portrayed in the famous 'Young Lion' photo shoot shot by Joel Brodsky. Just before he went to Paris and died, Jim grew a massive beard and put on a huge amount of weight in a rejection of his status as a style icon and pretty boy. 

Pamela Courson, Jim's long-term partner was a talented stylist herself and also worth mentioning in her own right. Jim bought a shop for her, with his royalties from 'Strange Days.'.  'Themis', "the store where the creatures meet", was mainly a clothing store/hangout for the hip and the cool of LA where they could drop in and drop out. 

Jim, Pam and friends at Themis

Themis was located close to The Doors' studio/office in Los Angeles. The boutique had odd hours, as Themis designer Tere Tereba said: “Themis was ‘incredibly exclusive’ because it was never open. You could count on one hand the times it was open.” Despite it's exclusivity, it was filled with fanciful clothes, jewellery, and decor picked out especially by Pamela on her travels to sell occasionally. It was more of a hangout for the beautiful people. It had lots of richly coloured tapestries on the walls, small mirrors and feathers on the ceiling, tie-dyed dressing room curtains, lots of candles, perfumes, incense and racks of clothes that were very European with styles that had not yet gained popularity in the U.S. 

"(Themis was) a romantic poetry den- not at all like any place you would imagine being located in Southern California- more like something from Paris”. - Raeanne Rubenstein (Themis photographer)

Jim and Pam

"She mirrored the ceilings and then bought thousands of pheasant skins and layered them onto the ceiling with mirrors.  It was all padded and velvet.  Actually there weren't a lot of clothes. It was more of a place to hang out than the normal kind of shop.  There were always a lot of hip people hanging around and it reeked of dope." - Mirandi Babitz (boutique owner contemporary)

“I remember Jim wanting peacock feathers on the ceiling and Pamela wanting them on the walls. They both could not compromise so they had them on both the walls and ceiling! It’s the first thing you notice when you walked in. I think it was a genius idea. There were also many mirrors and curtains on the doorways in different colors. Pamela also had small colorful stuffed animals around. Horses, unicorns, monkeys... all over the shop... you turned a corner, out popped a unicorn. Needless to say my daughter who was two at the time loved going there. Pam always gave her a stuffed toy when we visited." - Anne Marie (Pamela's friend).

Pamela's rich hippy style was more exclusive and expensive than that of your average Haight Ashbury hippy. Her love of handmade fabrics, velvets, silks, beautiful outfits appliqued with antique embroidery and dresses in shiny metallics made her a style icon in her day. As for Themis, on returning to LA after Jim's death, Pamela was informed by her lawyer that her boutique would have to close as she did not have the finances to keep it going until Jim's will had been finalised. Rather than leave her beloved shop to whither away in dusty memories or be picked apart by lawyers and financiers, in true rock'n'roll style that would have made Jim proud, Pamela drove a car through the shop's front window, trashing the boutique and ending Themis forever.

Part 2 will be available next week